Gold Standard: The 2012 London Olympic Closing Ceremony

Judged on the gold medal tally alone, the United States of America won the Olympics with 46, China came in second with 38 and, incredibly, Team GB, drawn from the tiny islands of the United Kingdom, came in third, with a record-setting 29. Yet last night’s exuberant giant gig of a closing ceremony brought the sixteen days to an end and meant even more to the host country than the number of medals accumulated. The success of the games, its smooth running, friendliness, good humor—and the gorgeousness of the London venues on TV—has reflected Britain back to itself in a better light than it ever believed possible. Marathon swimming in the Serpentine pond in Hyde Park—with the ducks! Show-jumping in the gardens of Greenwich Palace! An absurdly wonderful beach laid out for the volleyball on Horse Guards Parade—almost within sight of 10 Downing Street, had there not been a tree in the way (Prime Minister David Cameron joked that he was trying to have it cut down). And no traffic or terrorism after all! It has been a crazily exhilarating experience for a country that has turned underdogism into a fine art, thus rediscovering qualities in itself that others have liked, enjoyed, and praised. A measure of the tenor of that newfound feeling of community came last night when Lord Sebastian Coe, who organized the London Olympics, thanked the 30,000-strong team of volunteers who cheerfully welcomed, calmed, joked with, and showed kindness to the world’s visitors. He was hardly able to stop the applause in a stadium packed with 80,000 visitors from all over the world. It was longer and louder than even the roar raised for the athletes themselves.

And last night, even the U.K.’s fashion Olympians played a role. A squad of Britain’s supermodels—internationally recognized faces, wearing internationally recognized designer clothes and with hair and makeup by Sam McKnight and Val Garland—loped out along a Union Jack–shaped runway to the sound of **David Bowie’**s “Fashion.” Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell wore Alexander McQueen, Stella Tennant was in Christopher Kane, Lily Cole was in Erdem, Karen Elson was in Burberry, and Georgia May Jagger wore Victoria Beckham. That made a double-gold performance for Mrs. Beckham—she also appeared, driven atop a London taxi, alongside her fellow Spice Girls, to sing “Wannabe”—one of the many singalong moments that had the whole stadium laughing and dancing its heart out. As many have remarked, the choice of the Spice Girls (they who flew the flag for “Girl Power” in the nineties) as one act in an encyclopedic roster of U.K. musical talent could not have felt more right. One of the crowning achievements of London 2012 is that it also goes down in history as the Girl Power Games. The history-making American women athletes Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Misty May-Treanor, to name a few; the fact that the British medal haul was plumped by twelve golds won by women; that a British woman won gold in the first year the Olympics allowed female boxing—and that women athletes from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Brunei competed for their countries for the first time: All these achievements are unforgettably etched into the memories and the self-esteem of womankind as a whole.

As for tomorrow? Well, it’ll be back to the usual. Britain’s broke, we know that—but still, nowhere near as broken as we thought. As the British alone can prove, there’s nothing more stirring than a bit of nutty optimism in a gloomy time. In the words of the ridiculous ditty sung by Monty Python’s Eric Idle and an 80,000-strong mix of everyone from super-achievers to children to septuagenarian volunteer ushers, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”